Tamba
by planet p
Summary: AU; Annie has a guest at her house, but he's not a friend from school. He came with her father.
1. Chapter 1

**Tamba**

by planet p

**Disclaimer**

Don't own 'the Pretender' or any of its characters.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...

Annie doesn't believe in rainbows and pixie dust.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...

Annie rolled over and came up against the bureau beside her bed. Blinking stickily she strained to make out the time illuminated digits through the dark.

3 am.

She let out a breath she hadn't realised she had been holding, and sat up, her blankets rustling softly.

xxx

She could hear voices from up the hall. Her parents. The commotion had probably been what had woken her. She made no move to shift from where she sat. She knew better than to stick her nose in where it wasn't wanted.

xxx

Peering through the gloom to the little metal bed across from her own, her heart somersaulted as she realised it was empty. Tamba was out of bed. Annie's mind began to cloud with possible scenarios, none of them comforting.

She prayed her father hadn't taken the four-year-old away. She hadn't even been given a chance to say goodbye, good luck, best wishes.

xxx

A sniffing sound broke the relative silence and startled her. Her eyes scanned the room in panic, finally coming to rest on the open window where the little boy sat in the cill, knees drawn up to his chest, watching silently.

xxx

Annie gently pushed her blankets from her legs and stood, crossing the room to where the boy sat, transfixed, careful not to startle the small child by stepping on any creaky floorboards or stumbling on her rollerblades that she had dumped at the end of her bed the previous afternoon.

xxx

"Tammy?" she questioned breathlessly.

The boy didn't stir. Annie noted his bare feet and the flimsy giraffe pajamas he was wearing. He looked deathly pale in the moonlight.

"Tammy? Sweetie?" she tried again.

"Loud?"

Annie started at the sudden response, having not detected the slightest of movements to indicate such. It was cold by the window, she crossed her arms across her chest and clutched her upper arms. "Yes, Tamba, loud. Mum and dad are arguing. Again." At this the girl rolled her blue eyes.

Tamba finally turned away from the window, holding out his arms for Annie to help him down. The older girl complied, shocked by how cold the little boy really was. His skin felt like ice. Taking a cursory glance in the direction of the camp bed Tamba usually slept on, she looked away once more, having made her mind up.

"C'mon, Tammy, Annie will tell you a story."

xxx

Annie sighed to herself, stroking the youngster's hair as he slept with his head in her lap. Her parents had finally quit yelling at one another.

Annie knew her mother would be in the bathroom, puking whatever she had eaten at dinner all over the basin. Her father would be in the lounge, smoking. Her mother often complained that the whole bloody house smelt of smoke, but never to her husband.

In all honesty, Annie realised her parents hated each other. At least, that was the closest emotion she could attach to their relationship. They rarely talked to one another, and when they did it was to snip nastily or hiss something equally malicious under their breaths. The unspoken laws were abided of course, but barely. When they weren't arguing they weren't talking at all.

xxx

Her young age and relative innocence allowed her to overlook the most part of these problems, however, and it wasn't as though she would ever talk about it with anyone. She didn't think she trusted anyone enough with such information. Her family was respected, up-standing citizens. Her father would kill her if she had any part in disgracing the family name.

She thought of talking with her mother but the poor woman had enough problems of her own. Annie knew what asking for trouble was, and the very thought of mother-daughter discussions conjured scenes of torture within the girl's mind. Her mother had enough to deal with on her own, unloading her burdens upon the woman's already fragile psyche would only serve to frustrate her further.

Annie knew her mother wasn't by nature a violent woman and tended to take things out on herself rather than others, but it was a delicate balance, and Annie didn't know how far her mother could be pushed until she snapped. She wasn't game enough to try.

Her father was a lost cause. Despite being a psychiatrist, he seemed to live in a dream, preferring to think of the world as being all rosy rather than accept the truth. The truth would be too much to take for him, Annie knew. Her father liked to understand everything, and what he didn't understand her dismissed or made up lies to ease his mind. If the unknown was a dog or some animal, Annie was sure it would have been shot and buried already.

xxx

Annie sighed lightly and gently eased back into her pillows, careful not to wake Tamba as she arranged the blankets across the boy.

The window was still open, the flimsy lace curtains floating eerily in the light breeze. Annie closed her eyes and drifted into back into her silent nightmares.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...

Tamba sat in the blue plastic seat, unmoving. Edna was off to the hairdresser's for a haircut for Annie whose fringe was beginning to poke into her line of vision.

Scruffy hair would just not do, Edna had told her daughter when she had made to protest. Annie gave in, same as always.

xxx

Edna brushed a harried hand across her forehead, smoothing the hair from her face and stowing it away behind her left ear with the aid of her little finger.

Annie say in the barber's chair draped in a navy smock, eyes shut tight, kicking her legs back and forth, wincing as the scissors snapped shut dangerously close to her head, scared that the hairdresser was going to slice and ear off or the sort. She didn't want to be earless.

Tamba was as despondent as ever in his funny little corduroy dungarees and white singlet. Edna sat beside the boy, her left leg crossed over the right, reading one of those glossy-covered magazines with the pretty pictures of perfect bodies and scandalous lives.

The magazine didn't really interest her, in fact far from it, but it was something with which to pre-occupy her swarming head.

xxx

After the hairdresser's, Edna took the kids to the mall for a hot pie, getting herself a coffee with her usual three sugars.

xxx

Annie scratched the back of her neck, whining. "The hair's prickling me, mum!"

Edna rolled her eyes. "The hair is not prickling you. Stop thinking about it and finish your pie before it gets cold and then you won't want it any more. I won't have good food going to waste, young lady."

Annie huffed, drenching her pie in tomato sauce and prodding it absently with her little finger.

"Just eat it already!" her mother snapped.

Annie started, shooting her mother a quick glare, before taking a begrudging bite and chewing it through bared teeth.

xxx

Edna's eyes glazed over in her steaming coffee. Annie chewed her pie in silence, glaring down at the laminex rather than meet her mother's eyes.

Edna was brought back to earth with the sound of a sickening smash and something splatting. Her eyes first found the broken ceramic and the pie smeared across the marble tiles. Annie sniggered into her pie. "Bloody Hell, Tamba!"

Edna stood to reprimand the kneeling boy. Glaring down at the small boy she noted that her stockings were covered in tiny chunks of mince and tomato sauce. She cursed silently.

She bent down and seized the child roughly by his upper arm, smacking the ceramic from his hands.

Edna almost didn't notice the blood, mistook it for sauce. It wasn't as though the child had made any indication that he had cut his hand.

She only registered the gash wiping his hands on some serviettes.

xxx

Edna skipped the hospital altogether; went straight to the Centre instead. She was going to take the boy back to where he belonged and he was going to stay there.

Annie grumbled incessantly on the taxi ride. "My hair's so stupid, mum. Dad's gonna freak. It looks ugly. Why can't I ever get a nice haircut like you mum?"

Edna shot her daughter a deadly glare. Annie fell silent and gazed out the window instead. Tamba sat in her lap and she was starting to become annoying with keeping pressure on his hand. She didn't want to get blood on her favourite Mickey Mouse top.

Tamba was silent as always. Annie gave his hand a tiny squeeze, flinching. Tamba didn't react. Annie wondered if this was a good sign or not.

She knew her mother hadn't bothered with the hospital due to the fact that the last time she had taken Annie there with a cold her husband and the MD had gotten into a tiff and William had had to be escorted from the building. Boy had Edna been angry that day. Apparently the doctor had misdiagnosed Annie's condition and had been trying to feed her pills that were no good for her. Edna maintained her husband didn't know what he was on about, he wasn't a _proper_ doctor after all. Annie remembered her father had stayed at a motel that night.

Sniffing, Annie wondered if her mother was not going to the doctor's just to spite her husband.

xxx

Edna shook her head. "Can't you see this boy's bleeding to death here? I need to see my husband – now! I don't care about any board meeting!"

The young clerk shook his head. "I'm sorry, ma'am…"

Edna thumped her hand down on the bench and stormed off, leaving the clerk to gape after her. Annie hurried after her mother, dragging Tamba along to keep up.

xxx

Annie gazed around the office in mild interest. Sydney was busy asking Tamba questions in an attempt to assess if the anesthetics had kicked in yet. Tamba responded the young psychiatrist's questions with a nod or a shake of his head, his silly little pudding bowl hair-do flouncing about ridiculously.

Edna had finally resigned to letting Dr. Green attend to the boy's stitches after being practically dragged from a hall she was clearly not supposed to be in at gun point. Annie knew the Sweepers had guns, they had however refrained from pulling them on Dr. Raines's wife, particularly in front of his daughter.

Annie knelt beside Tamba and held his free hand whilst the stitches were being fixed, unsure as to how she should comfort him, and if he needed comfort at all. She shut her eyes, fearing she may bring up her pie if she had to watch the procedure. Tamba was silent and unmoving the entire time, gazing up at the grey ceiling with a blank stare.

Edna paced endlessly.

xxx

"All done!" Sydney announced brightly, finishing up with the bandage and helping the little boy to sit up. "Now that wasn't so bad, was it?"

Tamba remained despondent.

Sydney smiled encouragingly and offered both children a couple jelly babies from a jar on his desk which he credited to Catherine Parker and her attempt at brightening up his office and earning him some cavities in the process.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...

Annie stood by the mirror, brushing her hair obediently. Edna came in later, her eyes landing on Tamba sitting in the centre of the bathroom.

"Have you brushed your teeth, Tammy?"

Tamba blinked slowly but didn't look up from his rainbow-laced joggers.

Edna scowled, wrenching the boy to his feet and shoving him towards the basin. "I _want_ you to brush your teeth!"

Annie winced, shying slightly. Her father had not yet returned home and her mother was becoming increasingly frustrated by Tamba's lack of communication.

"He brushed his teeth, mum," Annie informed her mother in the plainest voice she could muster.

She didn't like to see her mother angry, it scared her, and she knew her mother didn't like to be angry, it gave her a migraine.

Edna scowled, turning on her heel. "Get that boy into his pajamas and into bed. It's eight o'clock. Bedtime is seven-thirty! How many times do I have to repeat myself before it sinks in?"

Annie took Tamba's arms and examined the little boy's face as though she thought he might cry. His expression was its usual blank slate, grey eyes glazed over.

xxx

Annie only allowed herself to fall asleep once she knew her daddy was home. She took one last glance at the electronic clock before her closed and she fell asleep without even trying, briefly wondering if her daddy was going to make a habit of arriving home at 4am.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...

Church was at ten on Sunday. Edna brought a casserole she had made the night before. William wasn't going, said he didn't believe in it anyhow so why should he pretend? Said they were all a bunch of sadists with all their "hail Mary"s and petty attempts at punishment and clemency.

xxx

William dropped his wife off on the corner but refused to come in. Edna kicked the door, scowling. Annie dashed around the car and pulled her mother back before she did any serious damage. "Mum!"

Edna laughed horribly and swept off down the concrete footpath, leaving Annie to lug the casserole without dropping it and watch Tamba that he didn't stray onto the road and get cleaned up. William drove off in a hurry.

xxx

Annie scowled to the little boy. "Tamba! Get away from the road!"

Tamba wandered back to the footpath, scraping the fronts of his shoes as he walked.

Annie shook her head. It just wasn't fair! Why did she get stuck with the deaf mute or whatever it was that was wrong with him?

xxx

The sound of tyres screeching on ashfelt tore through the quiet mumblings that could be heard from the church up ahead. Annie's breath caught in her chest. She turned abruptly, almost dropping the casserole in fear.

Tamba stopped abruptly, almost piling up on her, staring blankly into her face.

Annie let her breath escape her, thanking her lucky stars that the boy was still alive and not a mess across the road. "Bloody stay with me!" she growled. "There! Go in front of me so I can see you!"

xxx

William strode over to his daughter and took the casserole from her without so much as a word. He didn't wait up, quite imagining he was in for another screaming match when he got home.

xxx

Annie stared for half a moment. Tamba held out his hand which she took, wondering if the boy did have something in that head of his after all.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...

Edna made no comment when she spotted her husband with the casserole and Annie running to catch up, dragging Tamba by his uninjured hand.

William placed the casserole down on the table in the supper room with the rest of the food. Edna shot him a sickly sweet smile that could have been mistaken for affection, secretly hating his guts.

xxx

Annie sat out on the steps with Tamba, rummaging around in the boy's satchel for his colouring crayons and his pad. "Damn it!" She placed a hand over her mouth, gazing around to see if anyone had noticed. If they had, they pretended not to.

Tamba placed his crayons out in front of him, nudging them one by one over the edge of the step so that they tumbled all the way down to the ground.

Annie pulled out her father's bible which he had given to her as he no longer needed it. She began to read her verses from where she had left off last week when she had been temporarily suspended from classes for questioning why everyone referred to God as male when in fact God was an all-powerful, all-knowing entity, not even a homo sapien.

xxx

"Oi! Kiddo, get the bleeding Hell out from under my feet before I grab you and snap your fingers off! Won't be doing any pretty pictures then will you?"

Annie started and looked up. Tamba was scribbling on the concrete with his crayons, having run out of paper in his pad. Annie snapped her bible shut and took the steps two at a time. "Tam!"

The teen shot her a filthy look before sweeping off past her on his way in to church.

Annie rolled her eyes. "Idiot." She saw the teen pause out of the side of her eye but didn't care. "Tammy, sweetie, give Annie the crayons," she implored, down on her knees before the little boy. "You can't just go drawing on anything you like. There are laws and things. You don't want the police to take you to jail, do you? I've heard they put bugs in your jelly. You don't want buggy jelly, do you?"

Tamba continued scribbling away merrily.

Annie sighed, placing her bible in her lap and stretching out her hands for the crayons. "Tamba? It's called vandalism. You don't want to get in trouble, do you? Give Annie the crayons. Go on."

Tamba passed her all of the crayons save the red, still gazing intently upon his drawing. When he had fished he passed her the red and sat back to admire his handiwork.

Annie tilted her head. It looked as though Tamba had drawn a person, having only used the black and red. "Is it a woman?"

Tamba made no attempt to contest her so she assumed that meant "yes". The red lips was a bit of a dead giveaway as well.

"She's pretty. Does she have a name?" Annie asked, carefully stowing the crayons back in the satchel. After a moment, Annie stood and went back to the steps to finish reading her verses. Tamba sat beside her, never taking his eyes from the drawing. "What about we give her a name?" Annie questioned, ear-marking the page and shutting her bible, bored.

Tamba only stared.

"What about Bella? It means beautiful."

xxx

Annie shut her bible once more. It was almost time for lunch so she decided to go find her mum and dad. By the time she had located her parents it was twelve o'clock. Her mother was chatting with an older priest in her girly voice.

Annie turned back to Tamba and rolled her eyes.

xxx

William sat with his daughter out on the steps, eating half-frozen casserole and cold sausages off silly paper plates.

Annie prodded her sausage with her flimsy plastic fork absently, before she looked across at her father and nodded towards the pavement. "Look what Tamba did."

William sighed and gazed at the picture a moment. "Nice," he mumbled as though he couldn't really care.

Annie grinned, turning to Tamba and giving him the thumbs up. Tamba had abandoned his fork and was eating with his fingers, getting his bandage grubby in the process.

xxx

William left the two children on the steps, cautioning them not to walk onto the road or anything stupid like that, and went inside for afternoon congregation.

Annie sighed and chucked the rest of her food under the bushes for the little animals to eat. Tamba held out his plate, the leftover rice and vegetables about to slide off onto his feet. Annie took the plate hurriedly and deposited its contents on top of hers, hiding the plates under some leaves so some ants or bugs could hide under them when it rained.

xxx

The girl plonked herself down on the steps once more, Tamba mirroring her actions. Annie crossed her arms. Tamba waited for a moment before copying her.

Annie sighed, the breeze harsh against her burning cheeks. Church food always made her feel funny in her stomach.

She leant down to retrieve the half cigarette her father had dropped before he went inside. She brushed the dirt off it and took a drag, coughing something awful. She made a disgusted face. She felt sick. And people thought that looked cool?

She took another drag, her coughing less harsh the second time round. She passed the cigarette to Tamba and nodded for him to take it.

Tamba took the cigarette and repeated her earlier action. He doubled over, coughing. Annie laughed, patting him on the back. She took the cigarette back and took another drag. "It's not so bad the second time," she told him, holding out the cigarette once more.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...

Annie sat cross-legged on her bed, leafing through the one of her mother's old craft magazines.

xxx

The front door slammed and William came in from locking up the car.

Edna stood by the sink, hot water gushing down into the metal basin and steadily enveloping the casserole dish as dishwashing liquid bubbles began to grow as though alive.

Edna didn't turn when William entered the kitchen, fully intent on ignoring him for the rest of the day.

"Just what do you think you were doing?" her husband demanded.

Edna snorted, knowing full well what he was referring to. "What, not jealous are you?" she retorted, turning abruptly to face him.

She was greeted with a slap across the face that had her reeling backwards.

xxx

Annie squinted and forced herself to remain focused on the knitting pattern she was reading.

"Angry."

Annie winced at the sound of the little boy's voice. Looking over her magazine she noted Tamba standing beside her bed, his eyes sparkling in the afternoon light. Annie placed her magazine down beside her and took the child in her arms, resting her head on his chin and stroking the side of his face.

Her eyes stared blankly at the wall without really seeing.

xxx

Edna reached a trembling hand to her lip, wincing. Blood covered her finger tips. She gazed wide-eyed at her husband.

William didn't bother to ask if she was okay, didn't even really care if she was or not, just turned and left.

xxx

Edna slid down the bench till she came to a rest crumpled on the floor. The sound of a car door slamming reached her ears. Next moment the motor started up and the car sped off until it was a distant echo in her pounding head. Her overlarge eyes fell on the empty doorway and for the first time in her life she realised just how empty she felt inside.

Tears ran unchecked down her face, smudging mascara and blush all down her chin. Edna fell forward and cried into her arms.

**PS**

Annie is about eight or nine in this story (Miss Parker is the same age as Tamba).

Apologies if the timing is inconsistent with the show. I haven't seen the show since I was eleven, so – eek – sorry 'bout that.

I know it's a weird story but I'm trying not to be so Cathy and Sydney shippery as my bestie told me that Nicolas is born way way after Cathy dies, and now I'm like 'oh boo'.

Plus, I just like torturing characters (even if they're not mine). Only, don't quote me on that if the fan-fiction bouncers ask. Okay, I'll stop rambling now (kinda distracts from trying to listen to Doris Day).

Also, please don't take offence to the churchy comments. I've only been in a church about twice in my whole entire life and that was when I was littler than I am now. I don't really know anything about churchy proceedings except from what I've seen on telly and the times I went (i.e. explains the casserole).


	2. Chapter 2

**Tamba (Part Two)**

by planet p

**Disclaimer**

Don't own 'the Pretender' or its characters.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...

Annie moaned and turned over, restless in her slumber. Her eyes flicked open and she frowned into the dark. Her throat felt impossibly dry. She wondered if she wasn't coming down with anything. Placing a gentle hand on the little boy's forehead she noted that he felt fine. She carefully eased out of her blankets and crept to the door, opening it a jar and squeezing out into the hall.

xxx

The hall was cast in darkness for the most part. An eerie glow emanated from up the hall towards the front door. The kitchen light had been left on. Annie doubted that her mother was still up doing dishes or sorting out the cupboards for stocktaking. Her father would no doubt still be out at the pub, getting absolutely smashed blind.

xxx

She was a few metres from the door when she realised that it was already open. Her eyes widened in fear at the sight before her.

Edna lay on the hard shiny tiles in the middle of the surgically clean kitchen, her ebony eyes wide and unseeing, her pretty brown hair all mussed up. She was no longer wearing her lipstick red high heels and Annie could see that she had painted her toe nails the same red as her fingers.

But Edna was not alone. Annie's panic only seemed to increase at the sight of her father knelt down on the floor beside her mother.

Annie wanted to scream so bad, but she knew then that he would catch her and she would never be able to reach the phone in time to ring the cops.

xxx

William took a deep breath to calm himself. He had to stay calm. He had to think. He was so angry. How could she do this to him? He thought that he could just slap her one.

Another deep breath. He had to calm down. All of this rambling was doing him no good.

xxx

Annie's heart was beating a drum roll in her chest and she was sure that was not normal. She mentally reprimanded herself. She would need all her concentration if she was to get to the phone unnoticed. If she could just remember which flower to avoid; the flower beneath which lay the creaky floorboard.

_Think! Think, damn you! Stupid girl!_

xxx

She heard her father rummaging around in the kitchen. She didn't know what he was doing. She hardly cared. _What if he's looking for a knife? What if he knows you're out here?_ Her heart quickened to an impossible pounding until her head hurt with it. She had to get to the phone! She had to get help! She didn't want to die!

xxx

William ran a hand down his cheek. He wasn't thinking. He was panicking. He took another deep breath and stopped in hopes it may assist him to collect his thoughts. He couldn't help his eyes straying to his wife.

xxx

Annie was mere feet from the phone when movement caught in the side of her eye and she froze. She slammed her eyes shut tight, afraid of what she knew was coming. But she couldn't just stand there and wait to die! Slowly lifting her chin from the floor, her eyelids flicked open, the light of determination burning dark in her eyes.

Tamba stood as plain as day in the middle of the hall, his face eerily pale in the light from the kitchen.

xxx

William fell down hard on his knees as he reached a hand for his wife's neck.

xxx

"NOOOOOO!" Annie screamed hysterically, racing towards the little boy as though to stop him entering the room.

She no longer cared if her father heard her. She didn't even care if he killed her. He would not have the boy!

xxx

Tamba turned slowly at the sudden noise, his face as unreadable as it ever was. It was then that Annie saw what was clutched in his hands.

The little boy turned back to the kitchen. Slowly opening his palms, he stretched out his hands. William didn't think twice before he snatched the tiny bottle and the needle from the young boy, and turned back to his wife, falling to his knees once more and trying to steady his hands enough to administer the insulin.

xxx

Annie never saw any of this, however. She was too caught in her fear. Finally reaching the boy, she grabbed him and dragged. She had to get him out! She had to get him away! He had to live!

xxx

Tamba stared wide-eyed at the woman lying unmoving in the middle of the too-bright, too-cold room. Annie stroked his hair in her fear, her hands shaking as bad as her legs.

"No breafe."

The older girl froze at the sound of the little boy's almost unearthly voice warm against her neck.

xxx

Annie spun back to the kitchen, almost completely paralysed by fear.

"Damn you, Edna!"

Annie's eyes traveled from the pair on the floor, her father attempting to resuscitate her mother, to the bottle sitting merrily upon the cheery cherry tablecloth, a good fifth of the bottle's contents missing.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...

It was midday before Edna woke again. Annie hugged her mother tight to her once she knew she was awake and it was okay because her mother would tell her if she didn't want to be touched.

Tamba sat in the lounge, his legs crossed, silently observing the images flashing past the television, the volume turned right down in case it disturbed Edna's slumber.

xxx

Edna was shocked at first.

Why was her baby girl not at school? Why was she not learning like she was supposed to be?

xxx

Annie sniffed and backed away from her mother. Edna's arms remained limply by her side. She slouched a little. The little girl desperately wanted to ask if her mother was okay, but knew that she would never be allowed. That was not how the rules worked. _What went unsaid went undone._

"Daddy said I could stay home today," she explained, reaching a hand to her forehead. "He said I felt a little hot and that I should stay home rather than make all the other people sick too. Besides, he didn't want me being sick at school. It would look bad, he said, look like he was a bad parent…" she fell short at the blank look on her mother's face.

Annie stared into those lifeless eyes, silence ringing in her ears, and wanted to cry. Why wouldn't she just say something? Annie didn't care if she screamed. She didn't even care if she cried. She wouldn't dob. She couldn't stand to see her mother so lifeless. She couldn't wipe the memory of last night from her mind, the fear it had evoked. But she knew she must never speak of it again.

She wore a pretty smile, her hair perfectly brushed, her clothes perfectly ironed. She did not utter a single word, but inside she was screaming a silent prayer.

xxx

Edna shut her eyes slowly, opening them a few seconds later. An agonizingly slow minute passed before Edna pushed the blankets from her legs and stood. Straightening up properly, she swept the hair from her shoulder and tossed it behind her back.

Annie walked to the door and held it open for her mother. Edna didn't thank the girl. It was lunchtime. She had a duty to do.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...

Dinner was as quiet as ever that night. The kitchen table was for eating, not for talking, and certainly no place for abhorrent rambling.

Edna did not sit. Instead she leant on the sideboard and stared out the window as bugs scurried frantically against the polished glass.

Later, she finished up the dishes and packed the leftovers into those little plastic tubs people put in their freezers.

xxx

Annie sat at the kitchen table to do her Maths homework. William sat beside her, watching his baby girl patiently, never looking round as his wife busied herself about mixing up some cordial to put in the fridge door.

Annie sighed, a grumpy frown coming across her face. "Daddy, do you know how to do fractions?"

William smiled grimly, looking down at the worksheet his daughter was pondering. "Fractions, you say?"

Annie continued to gaze at the sheet as her mother left the kitchen to take Tamba to his bath. "Yes, Daddy."

"Hmmm? Well, it's been quite a while, but I may just recall a thing or two." His eyes darted to the cupboard above the stove. "With a little persuasion… I'm sure…"

Annie grinned, pushing her chair out and checking the door to see if her mother was indeed gone. Her grin widened and she scurried over to the stove, pulling her seat after her. A moment later, she was seated back at the table, crunching on a cookie from the cookie jar.

Edna never noticed a cookie here or there.

xxx

Tamba was already safely tucked into bed by the time Annie had finished both her English and Science homework.

William passed her a glass of water from the tap in her favourite plastic tumbler before sending her on her way, reminding her to brush her teeth before she went to bed or else the tooth fairy would be very happy and daddy would be very broke.

xxx

Annie reached for the door handle. Her movement faltered at a sound from within. Her stomach churned at the sound of someone retching.

A shiver that had nothing to do with the cold ran sharp down her spine.

Her mother always did this. She couldn't keep anything down for more than half-an-hour. Annie almost wanted to scream at her. Instead she let her hand fall limp by her side. She went to bed without brushing her teeth that night.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...

Annie was excited about her school fair. Her mummy was going to be there, and Tamba too. Annie couldn't wait to show Tamba her classroom.

He would be going to school soon, besides. Then she would have a friend to play with at play. She wouldn't care if the other girls picked on her for her dorky haircut because Tamba would have one just the same, and he would never care. She wouldn't even care if the boys called her names and said she liked girls because she wouldn't kiss them behind the shelter sheds during sports, because she would just punch them and say 'see, Tam, this is how it's done'.

xxx

Edna took a taxi to the school. She was dressed in a pretty sky blue summer dress. Tamba wore a matching tee-shirt and striped corduroy dungarees.

xxx

Annie was rostered onto a stall selling potted flowers. She had even given them names, just as her mummy gave the flowers in her own garden names, secretly of course. Thinking about it, it did sound a bit silly, so she never said their names out loud, but they all had their own special names almost like a pet.

Annie didn't run out like the other children when they saw their parents. Such behaviour was inappropriate. Her mother would be angry and embarrassed. She was a big girl now, a big girl who was expected to do her mummy and daddy proud.

She simply smiled and hummed Sarah Vaughn's 'Are you certain', the song her mother told her she had played at her wedding.

xxx

Annie sat with her mother and Tamba for lunch, glad she did not have to eat on her own and that she didn't have to dodge any balls or bark chips the other girls in her grade threw at her for being a 'tomboy' who got into fights with boys if they stole her skipping rope or rollerblades.

"Mum, do you think Dad would like if I got him some flowers he could put in his office or something?"

Edna looked up from her baked potato and salad. She took a sip of water before she spoke, slapping Tamba's hand as he attempted to reach for Annie's orange juice, having finished his own cup but not having touched a piece of his tomato and cheese sandwich. "Annie, your father doesn't need you to get him presents. He has his own money for that. Why don't you put the money into your piggybank instead?"

Annie's smile fell away instantly, yet she was determined not to make a show of herself. "Of course, mother."

Edna nodded mutely, turning her attention back to her salad a moment later.

Annie blinked her tears away profusely, unwilling to cry in front of her mother, let alone half of the school of more.

xxx

The afternoon proved less hectic than the morning had. Annie was given time off to look around if she wanted to buy herself anything. She kept her money safely in the pouch clipped about her waist.

Tamba sat on a green bench by the tank stands and bubble taps, perfectly still, his eyes fixed on an indefinable position somewhere in the distance. Annie had a good mind to presume he was following the conversation between her mother and the mother of another girl from her grade. Annie rolled her eyes. Her mother was so not trying to fix her up for another sleepover?

"Tam?" The little boy didn't look around at the whisper in his ear. Annie wasn't sure he had heard her and was about to repeat herself when he stuck a hand out for her to take and slipped quietly from the bench.

Annie grinned and dragged him off towards the school entrance.

xxx

She pointed out all the classrooms and explained who did what where, stopping when she came to her own classroom and proudly pointing to a picture she had drawn herself.

"They have crayons and paint and all," she explained, "and they never run out of paper, so you can draw as much as you like, except when you have to do Maths because Maths is boooring."

They moved on towards the library, Tamba scuffing his toes on the linoleum floor because of his pigeon toe and his silly little Roman sandals that Annie would have sworn used to be hers when she was smaller.

Annie looked down at the little boy's freshly combed hair that was now starting to show signs of scruffiness. "This is where they keep books like that book I showed you I got from school. Well I got it from here, and there's lots of other books too. All sorts of books about all sorts of things. But no books like the ones Daddy has."

xxx

"ANNIE? ANNIE?"

Annie started and looked wildly around. "Damn!" Casting a last glance around the hall, she set off towards the school yard once more, Tamba in toe. "Oh well. I've got roster to do." She smacked her leg loudly. "Damn!"

xxx

Trixie, Ronnie, Miranda and Donna were all sent off to new homes in the arms of eager little grubby hands. Annie beamed cheerfully, knowing just what those little children wanted to do with her flowers.

She sighed as she watched boys and girls chase each other past the monkey bars, their faces painted with bright neon colours, their hands grubby from dirt and sand and food.

xxx

"Annie?"

Annie passed the pot plant carefully across the school desk decorated with pretty posters and streamers, giving away another of her friends, Bert, and turned to address her mother. "Yes, mother?"

Edna leant across the desk in an attempt to peek beneath the table. "I hope you're not trying to hide him, Annie? Tell him to come out this instant."

Annie frowned, taking a look under the table herself. "Hide who, Mum?"

Edna placed her hands on her hips, narrowing her eyes in frustration and anger. "Tamba!"

Annie shook her head, brushing the hair off her not face with a dirty hand, wiping potting mix across her forehead, much to her mother's dismay. "He's not here, Mum."

Edna rolled her dark eyes and scoffed. "Then where, young lady, do you suppose he is? Pluto… perhaps…?"

Annie felt a slight twinge of annoyance. She begrudgingly refrained from yelling at her mother that she was supposed to be supervising the boy. "No, mother," she replied dutifully. "Perhaps he had gone to the toilet?"

Edna turned away without explanation and strode off, her high heels click-clacking dully on the gravel courtyard.

The girl looked away and scowled horribly. A moment later her beamish smile was replaced and there was not a hint of scowl in her voice.

xxx

Edna recruited one of the teachers to help her in locating the little boy, at which the teacher suggested Annie join them.

"Tammy?" Annie turned on the spot, trying not to panic. "Tammy?" Surely Tamba wouldn't have simply wandered off?

xxx

After they had searched the yard to no avail, Annie suggested they try the classrooms in case Tamba had wanted to draw a picture or something and had decided to sneak inside and borrow some crayons.

Edna shot her daughter a disapproving glance, but spoke of it no further.

xxx

But Tamba was not to be found in the Art Room. The teacher said they would ring the police if nothing came up soon. Annie stopped at the corner and frowned, calm but for the glistening of her eyes in the low light. "Tamba?"

Her eyes fell on the library door, slightly a jar. Her heart skipped a beat, doing a back flip in her chest.

"Mum! Miss Carroll!"

She pushed the door wide and skitted into the library without waiting.

Tamba sat by the blackboard, his legs crossed, unmoving. Annie was on the point of giving him a good dressing down when he eyes fell on the television. She blinked, uncomprehending. Her eyes grew wide in shock.

xxx

_The young woman cried, lazy tears oozing down her ice cold cheeks as lightening flashed across the bleak night sky. "Trent? Trent? You know I didn't mean to do it?"_

_The young man whom she addressed continued dragging the heavy garbage bag through the mud, dredging a course-way for the water that leached from the squelching earth, heavy with water from the recent downpour._

"_Trent?" The woman ran hand across her hair, smearing her pretty blonde hair with flecks of mud, before she walked over and smacked the bag out of the man's grasp. The garbage bag fell to the earth with a watery thud._

_Trent glared up at the woman and took her wrists forcefully._

"_I had to do it!" the woman protested. "I had to! She would have told. She saw us together. What would have happened then? What would have happened if she told my husband?"_

_In that moment Trent looked possibly murderous. The wind picked up, thrashing against the thin black plastic._

_Lightening struck again. The plastic shifted in the wind momentarily, to reveal the deathly pale face of a young girl no more than thirteen. Trent gazed down into the lifeless eyes of his daughter. "Go! Just go! I don't expect to see you again. Move away. Go on a long long holiday. I don't know. Do anything, but I will be no part of it." With that he leant down and covered the face of his little Lily and resumed dragging her to her shallow grave beneath the sandbox the preppies often played in._

xxx

Miss Carroll gasped. "Oh my God!"

xxx

The police came anyway.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...

Annie woke early the next morning. Light shone feebly behind her eyelids and roused her from her dreams of watery ends and shallow graves.

William was pulling things out of the closet and chucking them into a blue cardboard suitcase.

Annie sat up in her bed, and rubbed her eyes, alarmed. "Daddy?"

William paused and turned to face his baby girl briefly. He smiled reassuringly. "Go back to sleep, dumpling. It's very early still."

Annie's eyes darted to the camp bed where Tamba slept. Tamba was gone… and so was the bed.

Annie dived out of her bed and ran for the door before her father could stop her. She pelted up the hall and grabbed the doorframe, skidding around into the lounge.

Edna was knelt before the couch, fixing the shoelaces on Tamba's little joggers.

"No! NO!"

Edna looked up from the little boy, nodding for him to stay put. Annie dashed across the room and straight into her mother's arms.

"NO! NOOOOO!"

Annie fought against her mother's hold desperately. William stepped into the lounge, suitcase in hand, and held out his free hand for the little boy to take. "Come, Tamba. We must be going or we shall be late."

"NOOOO! Please! Daddy! Don't make him go! DADDY!"

Tamba did not seem to notice the commotion. He stood and walked to the door, where he took William's hand and they disappeared out of sight into the hall.

Annie hollered uselessly. Edna growled and struggled to keep her hold on the screaming child. "TAMMY! TAMMY!"

Edna gritted her teeth and pulled her daughter back from the door. Soon the sound of a car engine broke through the still morning air. Edna loosened her hold on her daughter once the sound of the car had faded away. Annie fell limp in her mother's hold. Edna stepped away from the girl and Annie sunk to the floral grey carpet, silent tears raking barbed wire through her lungs.

The grandfather clock on the wall by the fireplace chimed loudly.

It was seven o'clock. Edna left the lounge to put the kettle for coffee. Tinny music drifted idly through the empty house. Edna took the sugar bowl from the cupboard above the stove and placed it in the centre of the table. Then she went and turned the radio up. The neighbours scarcely needed much else to gossip about.

The End


End file.
